1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an upright vacuum cleaner, and, more particularly, to an upright vacuum cleaner that is capable of simultaneously performing movement of a cleaner body and swing of a brush with a single DC motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a conventional upright vacuum cleaner. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional upright vacuum cleaner comprises: a cleaner body 100 for suctioning air though a suction nozzle 101 and filtering the air to remove foreign matter from the air; a drive motor 200 mounted in the cleaner body 100 for driving the vacuum cleaner such that the cleaner body 100 can be moved forward or rearward; and a grip unit 300 mounted to the upper end of the cleaner body 100. At the grip unit 300 is disposed a manipulation lever for controlling the forward or rearward movement direction of the vacuum cleaner.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional upright vacuum cleaner further comprises: a frictional clutch 400 for converting a rotating force of the drive motor 200 transmitted to a left clutch gear 401 or a right clutch gear 402 via a wire 301 connected between the manipulation lever of the grip unit 300 and the frictional clutch 400 to a forward or reverse rotation; and a pair of drive wheels 500 rotated in the forward or reverse direction by the rotating force transmitted by the left clutch gear 401 or the right clutch gear 402.
The manipulation lever is disposed at the grip unit 300 for converting operation of the vacuum cleaner to a neutral operation, a forward-movement operation, or a rearward-movement operation. When the manipulation lever is lowered, a swing lever is pushed by the wire. As a result, a felt disc of the frictional clutch comes into tight contact with a friction disc of the left clutch gear. Consequently, the vacuum cleaner is moved forward. When the manipulation lever is raised, the swing lever is pulled by the wire. As a result, the felt disc of the frictional clutch comes into tight contact with a friction disc of the right clutch gear. Consequently, the vacuum cleaner is moved rearward. When the manipulation lever is placed at the neutral position, the felt disc of the frictional clutch comes into tight contact with neither the friction disc of the left clutch gear nor the friction disc of the right clutch gear. Consequently, the vacuum cleaner is not moved.
In the conventional upright vacuum cleaner with the above-stated construction, however, the manipulation lever is manually operated to move the vacuum cleaner forward or rearward. Specifically, the manipulation lever is manually operated whenever the grip unit of the vacuum cleaner is pushed or pulled to perform a cleaning operation. At this time, a relatively large force must be applied to the manipulation lever to push or pull the wire.
Furthermore, the structure of the frictional clutch and the clutch gears is very complicated, and therefore, the size of the cleaner body is increased, and the manufacturing costs of the cleaner body are increased.